Democratic gov candidate Jerry Brown itching to get started “two weeks from Tuesday” on state budget

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown says that — should he be elected California governor on Nov. 2, as many polls suggest — he will begin “two weeks from Tuesday” to meet with state legislators and plunge into the challenge of dealing with state budget and fiscal issues.

Asked his plans for immediately after the Nov. 2 election, Brown said it would be to “get to work..and start the process.”

The State Attorney General and former two term governor made the comments in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle while aboard a King Air 200 turbo prop flying from Stockton to Merced as part of his 12-city, 3-day barnstorm of California.

Brown, who was met by enthusiastic crowds of hundreds in Oakland, Merced, and Stockton, He said he was “feeling good” about Democratic prospects for next Tuesday. And he said he was eager to get to work on the fiscal problems that have hobbled the Golden State.

His plan: “First, frame up the issues, and start talking to people..make sure we have an understanding of what the problems are, and explore the range of alternatives.”

Then, he said, “start pushing for an early agreement.”

Brown said that it’s critical for the next governor to get to work quickly because “we don’t have time. We have too many problems.”

The former Oakland mayor was accompanied on the plane by his sister, former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Brown, and his longtime adviser Tom Quinn.

On the plane, as he did throughout the day, Brown repeatedly cautioned that it’s too soon to predict the outcome of next Tuesday’s election. But he spoke as a candidate who was already looking ahead to the next challenge.

In confronting that and beginning his work to talk to lawmakers and assemble consensus, he said, he will be sensitive to Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“My process will respect that,” he said. “We have one governor.”

Asked how he’ll succeed when Schwarzenegger has had problems getting the legislature to work together, Brown said he will be relentless in making direct and individual appeals to lawmakers. And he warned that on issues he cares about, “I can be inexhaustible.”

But the legislature alone won’t be making the choices, Brown said. “We’ll let Californians decide…it’s a choice,” he said. “People have to understand what’s at stake…it’s what I call civic dialogue.”

Asked about the potential of going to the ballot box next year to ask voters to approve new taxes, Brown sidestepped the question, saying it was too premature to make those judgements before the election.

Asked where he will live if elected, Brown said he plans to maintain his home in Oakland, and will “find a place” in Sacramento.

But it’s likely that he and his wife, Anne Gust, would entertain at the historic governor’s mansion where his father, the late Gov. Edmund “Pat” Brown, lived, he said. As to whether the couple would reside there, Brown said simply, “I don’t know.”

And Brown said that, if elected, he may even continue to drive his own Pontiac once in Sacramento. “It’s a good car,” he said.

He also promised that his relationship with the media will be “very open..we’ll have a lot of discussion.”

Brown noted that while the national pundits’ predicted that the country would be swept by an anti-politician, anti-Democratic wave, their predictions apparently may not extend to California.